By BRIAN LEAHY
of The Gazette
The recent official word that the U.S. has been in a recession since March is no surprise for county Health and Human Services Department officials.
"We have seen a pretty dramatic increase in caseloads over the course of the last six months and certainly over the last two," said Lauri Rockman, coordinator of the department's Division of Child and Family Services. "It's risen almost 40 percent over the last couple of months."
The biggest increase has been in telephone calls from people asking for emergency help, like finding food pantries, paying rent, reconnecting utilities and buying prescription medicines, Rockman said.
There were 490 requests for emergency food assistance in the quarter that ended Sept. 2000, she said. "The same quarter this year the number was 565 and it's increased since then."
One day last month the Emergency Services Department received 71 calls for service, Rockman said.
The increase request for help is a result of people having their work-hours cut or being laid off for a week or longer as businesses reduce costs.
"Families that were kind of on the edge before when the economy was going pretty good are terribly vulnerable in a recession," Rockman said.
Health and Human Services sponsors the Community Response Team, a cross-section of agencies and organizations that, since 1995, has watched indicators like usage of emergency food pantries, public assistance, children welfare issues and teen pregnancy numbers.
After seeing an increase last year in the use of food pantries, the team held a hunger summit. The summit led to the Hunger Prevention Partnership, five teams working on issues related to hunger - education system initiative (school breakfast and lunch programs), community resource awareness, resource development (food pantries for rural areas), community gardens and legislative advocacy.
The need for food pantries and charities is increasing at the same time usual contributors might have less money to give, either because the recession hit their budgets or they made donations to outside charities following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"It's a snowball kind of thing," Rockman said.
Besides the increase in emergency services requests, Health and Human Services has seen more people requesting ongoing assistance, like food stamps and W2, Rockman said. In November of 2000, there were 489 county food stamp cases. This November 623 families in the county were food stamp cases.
When Wisconsin moved from the welfare system to W2 (Wisconsin Works), many of the families on welfare moved to what is considered "the working poor."
"They have just enough money to cover basic needs," Rockman said.
The minute they lose income because their hours are cut or they are laid off, they are in economic trouble.
"It's not a matter of having to cut back on lifestyle. It's a matter of 'I can't buy food' or 'I can't pay my rent now.'"
Rockman recommends people in need first contact Health and Human Services Emergency Services Department. The department will coordinate assistance efforts and track them so there isn't duplication of efforts. It also will track statistics so officials know what the needs are in the community.
"They can call. They can walk in without an appointment and see someone," Rockman said. "If we can't help them, we will make referrals to the agencies that can."